Odyssey Of The Mind Shines At Regional Meet

Four Shapleigh School teams participated in the Odyssey of the Mind Regional Competition on Saturday, March 17 at Biddeford Middle School. Two squads finished in the top-three of their division, thus earning them a trip to the State Tournament on April 7 at Biddeford High School.

Shapleigh's sixth grade team (pictured at left) placed second on Problem 2: Emoji, Speak for Yourself. Team members include: Cheyene Grow, Charlotte Masse, Danica Sharp, Lilly-Anne Swasey and Caroline Todd. The coach is Tammy Masse. In this problem, teams created a performance where the emojis demonstrated special
functions like growing, turning into a team member, and changing into a
different emoji. Performances also included a choreographed dance, a
technical representation of texting, and sounds to enhance the
performance. The twist? No spoken language was allowed.

One of Shapleigh's fourth and fifth-grade teams (pictured at borrom, on right) finished third on Problem 3: Classics...Mockumentary! Seriously? Team members include: Frances Burke, Lorelai Kipp, Elivia Mandani, Noah McCahan, Ben Martine, Hannah Rowan and Claire Stith. The coaches are Gabe Bertrand and Brooke Williams. In this problem, teams selected a classic from a list and presented different characters
in a humorous documentary-style performance where details were added,
denied, exaggerated, and disputed. There were interviews,
behind-the-scenes “clips,” and voice-overs that took the audience
through the story and helped present the events as they “really” took
place.

Shapleigh also entered a seventh and eighth-grade team that, despite not advancing to the state tournament, was the best team in the "spontaneous" category of Saturday's regional meet. That team included: Quinn McPherson, Madeline Pitcairn, Kiarra Rux, Gracie Salema, Emily Sweeney and Isabelle Sweeney, and was coached by Christie Salema and Karen Sweeney.

The other Shapleigh fourth and fifth-grade team finished fifth in their division at the regional meet. Team members included: Noah DiBiase, Acadia Dorgan, Sage Hoffman, Celia Kehl, MacKenzie Mason and Sophia Swasey, and was coached by Rebecca DiBiase and Tracy Dorgan.

Special thanks to Brenda Bladen and Blayne Matty for coordinating and organizing all of Shapleigh's Odyssey of the Mind teams. Best of luck to the two teams taking part in the State Tournament, as they look to advance to the OM World Finals at Iowa State University May 23-26!